1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to plastic clips, specifically to such clips which are used for maximizing the opening of and securing a plurality of paper yard bags adjacent to one another.
2. Description of Prior Art
Due to the increase of environmental awareness and the necessity for biodegradable waste materials, paper yard bags have become very popular for disposing of yard waste. Leaves, twigs, grass, and many other forms of yard debris are commonly disposed of in these bags as they are completely biodegradable. In some cities and towns, it is mandatory that they be used for composting yard waste.
In addition, these paper yard bags greatly outperform the flexible plastic bags for several reasons. First of all, the paper yard bags are sturdy and stand up on their own while the plastic bags do not. Second, twigs will poke though plastic, but not through the durable paper bags. Third, paper yard bags are less costly to use for municipalities because they do not have to separate the waste from the bag for composting like they do with plastic.
There are disadvantages to the paper yard bags, however. Without a mechanism for holding them open, they are difficult to fill for several reasons:                (a) They have gusseted sides to facilitate folding, which forces them to taper inward at the top while open and standing. This small opening yields a very restricted fill area.        (b) The user must use one hand to hold open the bag, which greatly reduces efficiency. In this case, the user can only hold enough waste that will fit in their freed hand, which is significantly less than that which can be scooped up with a rake or garden tool. This makes the process very time-consuming. It is also very difficult to hold open the bag while manipulating a garden tool with the other freed hand in order to scoop the waste for filling.        (c) Due to the constricted opening of a single paper yard bag, the majority of the waste falls outside the opening onto the ground. The user must now rehandle the yard waste that was already scooped and attempt to fill again. This slow and inefficient process is very frustrating for the user as well as counterproductive to accomplishing the task.        
Prior inventions involve very large and awkward units that hold open a single yard bag—for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 04,318,521 (1982) to Martin, 04,548,372 (1985) to Lutzker, and 05,454,535 (1995) to Thomson. They are generally inserted into the bag or serve as a standing frame-like apparatus, making for a clumsy execution. Due to significant set-up and disassembly time, these units offer very little in terms of reducing the time to complete the task.
Since they're designed to accommodate a single bag, they are very limiting in the amount of waste that can be collected at any given moment, which also adds time to complete the task. Furthermore, most of these units are designed to support flexible plastic bags, not paper yard bags.